Drummer Maury Baker

Ars Nova

In 1967, while attending the Mannes Conservatoryin New York, Electra Records signed Ars Nova, a band he played percussion as well as organ. Elektra producer Paul A. Rothchild called them “the most exciting thing since the Doors.”

Ars Nova were promoted by Life Magazine with a profile, but ironically by the time of the article, the band had broken up.

Drummer Maury Baker

Janis

He became part of Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues Band in 1969. He had been playing with Judy Collins and her road manager suggested the audition to Baker. He wasn’t a part of the whole album being recorded (I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!), but was part of the single Try from the album.

One of his fondest memories of playing with Janis was performing Try with her on the Dick Cavett Show in July 1969

He went on the road and that road led to Bethel, NY and the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. His biggest memory of the event is flying in a Sikorsky helicopter over the field. He said that the size of the crowd worried Janis, but he reassured her that it would not matter. That once she got up on the stage, she’d just do her thing.

Drummer Maury Baker

Others

Being part of Janis’s inner circle gave Maury the opportunity to play with other names of those times, perhaps the most famous being Jimi Hendrix, who stopped by one night to jam with Zoot Money’s band.

Drummer Maury Baker

Nowadays

Recently, Baker has worked with Opera NEO. It’s Facebook page states that, “Opera NEO strives to unlock the full potential of young singers while nurturing each individual’s artistic qualities and personality to help them develop into independent artists. We encourage individual thinking and creative decision making that will lead to professional and personal fulfillment.”

Happy birthday

December 24, 1945

John Till was the guitarist in Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues Band at Woodstock. His path from Stratford, Ontario to that famous Bethel stage is an interesting one because it includes some familiar names along the way.

Kozmic Blues John Till

Musical family

John Till was born into a musical family. His mother played piano and his father played pretty much any stringed instrument.

In his AllMusic bio, Joe Viglione wrote of Till: “Till’s family never pushed him into music or forced him to take lessons. They told him years later that their philosophy was to just have the musical instruments “around” and to make sure there was lots of music to be heard in the house. Till describes his parents as being “totally supportive” when he showed an interest in playing music himself. His father taught him to play the four-string tenor guitar and banjo by ear, and also taught him the concept of improvisation — “taking off on the chords” — which is such a big part of Dixieland. They weren’t rich, but when he became interested in rock & roll around the age of 11, they managed to buy him his first electric guitar and amp.”

Kozmic Blues John Till

Bands

At Stratford Central High, John and a few classmates formed the Revols. One of the band mates was Richard Manuel.

John later became part of Larry Lee & the Leesures and Max Falcom and the Falcons. At one point, Till played with David Clayton-Thomas who would also be at Woodstock with Blood, Sweat and Tears.

When Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm left Ronnie Hawkins, new Hawks replaced them. One group of replacements included Richard Bell, Larry Alamniuk, and John Till. Those three would go on to become part of Janis’s last band, The Full Tilt Boogie Band, but John was with Janis before that.

Till can be heard on Hawkins’s 1967 single, “Home From the Forest.”

Kozmic Blues John Till

Who’s Janis Joplin?

John stayed with the Hawks until July 1969 when he replaced Sam Andrew in Janis’s Kozmic Blues Band.

It was after Janis abandoned the Kozmic Blues Band that she “created” the Full Tilt Boogie Band. The reason for qualifying the word create, is because the Full Tillt Boogie Band had actually begun as a side project of John Till and thus the double-L spelling of Tillt.

Till performing w Janis Joplin on the Dick Cavett Show

On January 19, 2018, the day that Janis would have been 75, John Till spoke on CBC radio about his time with Janis. Here are some of his observations:

before he joined the band, he’d never heard of Janis.

he wondered what he’d gotten himself into, but…

he realized her greatness when he first heard her live

he thought her performance at Woodstock was great because all the delays would have given her an excuse to slide

he thought Janis felt isolated at that point in her career and that that sense of isolation pushed her to the use of opioids

he said that she felt the Full Tilt Boogie Band was the perfect band and that “She’d be pissed if they ever left her.”

following the band tour and back in California recording her last album, Pearl, she would take out for dinner John, his wife Dorcus, and son Michael.

she made a purple necklace for Dorcus

the song, Buried Alive In the Blues was the only song on the album that she didn’t sing live with the band as she’d done with all the other cuts. The band recorded it separately. She never did record a vocal because she died before she could. It became an instrumental on the album.

the band was unaware of her opioid use.

Also regarding the Full Tilt band from a Wikipedia entry: Joplin and her management then hired Till, bass player Ken Kalmusky (also from Stratford, and who used the stage name “Ken Campbell”), as well as pianist Ken Pearson (from nearby Woodstock, Ontario), to fill out her new band, called Full Tilt Boogie. The band appeared on The Dick Cavett Show and were booked on the Festival Express which toured across Canada. The group recorded their classic Pearl album, which reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts in 1971, after Joplin’s death.

After Joplin’s death, and the subsequent breakup of Full Tilt Boogie, Till played with Bobby Charles, Bob Burchill and his ensemble in the Stratford apartments.

In the foreword of Love, Janis, Laura Joplin’s biography of her relationship with her famous sister, Till and his Stratford born wife, Dorcas, are thanked for providing some of the material for the book.

Kozmic Blues John Till

Lifer

John on left

After Janis’s death, John moved to Woodstock, NY and did sessions with Bobby Charles at the Bearsville studios. He returned to Canada in 1976. He continued playing and occasionally recording for other artists. He teaches guitar as well.

His current (last?) band is (was?) called B.W. Pawley & Plum Loco. Friend Ken Kalmusky had been the band’s bass player until his death in the fall of 2005. John’s son Shawn now plays bass. Postings and comments on their Facebook page suggest that the group disbanded in June 2016.

Terry Clements has a relatively small internet footprint. We know he played saxophone with Janis Joplin’s briefly formed Kozmic Blues Band at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair and that’s why I’ve put together this small piece as I’ve tried to do for all the Woodstock performers.

Electric Flag

Terry Clements also played with the Electric Flag, Leonard Schaeffer, Buddy Miles, Stoneground, and Michael Bloomfield.

The Electric Flag 1968 album is a live one featuring vocals by Erma Franklin, Aretha’s older sister. The album, as you can imagine, is loud and proud.

Saxophonist Terry Clements

Leonard Schaeffer/Buddy Miles

Leonard Schaeffer is not a common name and his music leans far away from the Electric Flag’s sound.

Buddy Miles leans right back into it.

Saxophonist Terry Clements

Jimi & Janis

He joined the Janis’s Kozmic Blues Band in December 1968 and toured with the band for its brief time, but he sat in with Jimi Hendrix on June 22, 1969 at the Newport festival in Devonshire Downs, CA. By the way, Jimi played the Star Spangled Banner that day, too.

Saxophonist Terry Clements

Stoneground

AllMusic lists Terry as a member of Stoneground for their 1972 Stoneground 3 album. Wikipedia states that, “Stoneground was a rock band formed in 1970 in Concord, California. Originally a trio, Stoneground expanded to a 10-piece band by the time of their eponymous 1971 debut album. The group appeared in two films, Medicine Ball Caravan (1971) and Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), and released three albums before singer Sal Valentino quit in 1973. “

Other than several albums that are reissues of Janis Joplin material, the internet suggests that Terry has been professionally quiet or at least under the radar.